With the drama’s unavoidable delay due to the weather at first and numerous other reasons coming up–either weaved by the pen of the paparazzi or assumptions from others, it was still an excruciating wait for everyone involved–directly or indirectly. In the most recent post, I mentioned that filming had resumed yet it was delayed again due to other factors. The paparazzi took it into their hands to draw up more stories, such as ‘Qiao Qiao looks too old for the role’ or she looked older than her two male leads. (She is actually 21 years old if anyone wants to know. But they said ‘looks’ and not the actual age, right? Although her appearance has matured since early days of her debut, but she still looks quite compatible with the two male leads.) Another reason listed and was actually found out to be true later is schedule conflict. It sounds more reasonable, doesn’t it?
After much debates–both heated and/or excitement of finally learning some actual news of a possible replacement, it was later confirmed by GTV. The new female lead to the drama is actually Reen Yu (who was last seen in the much hyped police drama Black & White). Many fans agreed on her resemblance to Qiao Qiao. GTV probably made a good choice since after all, they were aiming for the image of Xiao Feng. A press conference was pulled together to introduce the new female lead and she seemed to blend right in with her two male leads as they posed for pictures together.
The last bit of reality finally sank in and probably a closure for fans who have been waiting was when Qiao Qiao finally blogged about what really happened in regard to the changes. She named the entry ‘Goodbye Ai Si Bai Hui‘, which she expressed her feelings for what has happened. Although she was both sad and disappointed but she did not forget to show her encouragement and support for the new team and the production team to continue the journey and finish it at long last.
What are my actual thoughts about this? Very disappointed at first and a sense of bitterness but after actually reading Qiao Qiao’s explanation, I think that I could finally let go. I also noticed how much Qiao Qiao has matured over the years. She was known to some people as immature or whiny or whatever that they wanted to call her but she showed a great sense of consideration toward the cast, crew, and production team in general. She admitted that she was disappointed but she did not forget to encourage others on, having been through the hardships of the filming process thus far. She has always been seen as too straight-forward at times, showing both good or bad reactions (depending on one’s point of view) yet she has showed great change in her attitude in how she has handled this situation. One of the reasons I like Qiao Qiao is because she’s not perfect. But I like it even more because she’s not molded into acting a certain way or behave in a certain way on shows or other appearances in public. She has made mistakes in the past and we could witness her growth and maturity over the years consistently. It is known that she’s not perfect so people wouldn’t be saying, “Where did that come from?” in the future, considering it often happens with the so-called ‘perfect celebs’ in the past. I’m not implying anything or pointing fingers at anyone in particular (but just in general of seeing how hard celebs have to maintain their image at times) but I just feel happy to see this.
A little off-topic, but anyway, like Qiao Qiao, I wish the production team of Love Buffet the best also. They seem to be doing so well thus far from various news clips so hopefully their efforts will finally pay off.
On the other hand, there has been words with Qiao Qiao’s upcoming project since last month. The drama is supposedly called Water Maze (水迷宮), another GTV drama, and it is supposedly a reunion with Ming Dao since their last collaboration, The Magicians of Love. However, that little excitement soon faded since any traces of the drama has been deleted from the original post. Qiao Qiao fans should not be too discouraged though since the latest is that she’s collaborating with Baron Chen in a joint production between Mainland China and Taiwan.
*Various news articles were found by nastyhobbit

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0 thoughts on “Love Buffet: What happened?”

I tried to keep up with articles that commented on why Joanne was suddenly out of Love Buffet. I think that bit about her looking too old was an obvious media beat-up. The real reason probably had to do with all the delays in starting filming again, and odd changes to the script that meant Joanne would have had to shoot a lot of scenes again. I wonder if they did really want her out?
ANd then Tangerine advised her to bail out and pick up a new project, possibly ‘The Water Maze’. Then only a few days later, Love Buffet started shooting again!
Now it sounds as if she is confirmed in a thirty ep remake of ‘Meet the Parents’. Sounds as if it could be hilarious. I hope it works for her–she’s really cute and really talented!